Tag: Health

“I’m a bikini competitor. I feel leaner and look better but the scale!!!”
“I’m in prep but the scale isn’t moving”
“I’ve been dieting but the scale went up 2 pounds”
“I’m on the plan but the scale isn’t moving, should I drop my calories?”

Do you weigh yourself and find that you your mood changes based on the numbers?
Day after day, I hear this from my clients!

No one weighs you on stage, No one weighs you and judges you in your normal life.
You must get your mind set correct if you are going to be successful here!

If you grew up looking to the scale for reinforcement of your total skinniness , the scale will let you down every time! Here’s what I have to say to you because I care, but mostly because you are SMARTand won’t be falling for this crap any longer.

YOUR MAMA10. Understand that your mom was WRONG. Getting on the scale every day
“just to keep things in check.” is not real information. Water, hormones, sodium, the wind blowing sideways can alter the number on the scale. It’s NOT accurate.

YOUR SCALE IS A FRENEMY!9. If you can move your scale to another part of the room and you weigh lighter.. um… NO. I always feel better but it’s not real. Just the same as if you step on it more than once and it’s either heavier or lighter.. toss that scale. This is doing you no favors unless you like fake friends.

YOUR BODY HAS WORK TO DO SO QUIT COMPLAINING THAT IT DOES IT.
8. Your body can normally fluctuate up to 6 pounds a day, just by normal daily functioning. Digesting?? Nourishing, flushing.. and if you hydrate.. scale up…Go pee, it’s down Eat food.. lawdy don’t get on the scale after a meal… Whatever. Let it do it’s job!!

7. WATER IS THE B THAT COMES BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR SCALE.
7. Water will mess you UP! Six ounces of water can show as a POUND on the scale.
If you are bloated, or dry, it will show. Think about boxers who sweat for hours just to “make weight”. Are they truly lighter or just dehydrated. That’s not accurate? So now it is actually JUST A NUMBER (ps. drink your water.. 1 gallon spring. I said so).6. FLEXIBLE DIETERS EAT CARBS BECAUSE YOU NEED TO EAT THEM!
You do not get the luxury of building lean mass without a surplus of carbs. If you have been starving yourself
then begin to eat carbs stay off the scale. Carbs by nature pull moisture into the muscle. Dry muscles don’t grow. It’s science. You will have more muscle, but be leaner, and smaller so eat and get lean. The scale is for chumps.
Oh, my client Jax,above, reversed up to almost 400g carbs per day. She did most of her 12 week prep there. Last 2 weeks over 200g carbs a day. Who cares what the scale said. Ripped.

CELEBS STARVE BECAUSE THEY ARE PAID TO SO THEY LOOK NORMAL ON HUGE SCREENS.
5.People magazine shows me how to be movie star skinny. Weighing less doesn’t mean you look good. I SAID IT. Starving to say “I just want to be skinny” means that you have no muscle tone. It means that you are going to look drawn and crackly. Muscle is the fountain of youth. SkinnySkinny= metabolism is crap. Having muscle, your metabolism is like a rocket ship. That real housewives, skinny scare crow look is not cute. It’s’ yucky. People magazine is the first to turn on you too. “Look how skinny SHE looks!”, then 2 years later, “Look how fat she is.”! Stop listening to People Magazine. Kardashians are NOT role models. PS. Many Hollywood leading men are dwarfs so actresses have to be tiny. That’s not YOUR world.

SKINNY FAT MAKES ZERO SENSE.

4. Well, you low carbed it up or lost a bunch of weight but did you lose muscle too? Did you regain your weight right back with some extra pounds? Have you done that more than once? Crash dieting to see a ‘certain’ number means you’re going to rebound hard! No one has time for that! Adding muscle will ensure you keep a youthful, healthy, supple body and you can eat without fear of gaining! Muscle = awesome metabolism.

CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR PHYSIQUE

3 Change your mindset first. Pitch your scale and look in the mirror. Track your own progress with selfies. Each week you can ascertain if what you are doing is working or you need to tweak.
Once you are free from that number, you are free to lift weights and get smaller. Clients who FREAK out and run back to the elipitcal have a great surprise when they realize that they can lift heavy and burn more calories and body fat. They will look better and rock a tight bod. Selfies will reinforce progress!! Do IT. Say no to the treadmill. Lift heavy 4-5 days a week for 45 min. Do it.
I said so.

THIS IS SCIENCE. QUIT PLAYIN LIKE YOU KNOW MORE THAN SCIENCE.

2. Muscle doesn’t weigh more than fat. One pound of muscle or fat is still a pound but, that pound of muscle is smaller and TIGHT and more DENSE . Girls who are smart enough to WANT to gain muscle will win because they will slide into their clothes like they are dipped in butter. Muscle burns more calories than fat!
When you get on the scale and see that you are the same or higher weight, don’t complain because, girl you are now rocking smaller pants.

YOU ARE SMART AND YOU ARE WORTH MORE THAN A STUPID NUMBER.
1. The scale doesn’t determine your worth. If you look at your body as a sculpture. What would you like to fix? Having belly fat doesn’t make you less of the amazing person you are. But if you have belly fat and want to fix that, stop making it personal. Problem solve it. You figured out how to fix a leaky faucet. It wasn’t personal. Neither is the work you want to do on your self. Numbers, are just numbers, inaccurate or accurate. who cares. You don’t win an award for numbers on the scale. It has NO effect on who you are.

Oh! I gained 40 and Rob gained 60. We lost 100 to regain our life and health.

Throw back to the days of yesteryear.
I started my fitness/weight loss career in the early 80’s after I got my first Jane Fonda workout book. I am personal trainer, instructor trainer, national presenter, I trained my college football team, I worked for companies such as Proctor and Gamble as their fitness director. I’ve worked alongside very famous professional body builders, celebrities, elite athletes as well as health seekers in my community. Believe me when I say fitness is and always has been in my blood. I’ve seen it all and it shaped me into the trainer I am today.

The years were a blur.
Several years ago, I sustained an injury which was hampering my ablity to work in the gym. I had torn my quad and I was in agony. It never healed correctly. I could hardly get up the stairs! It was devastating.
At the same time, Rob and I had started our own web development company and my focus shifted. As we built our company, Rob and I worked at our desks 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. We ate bad food and we ate lots of it. We drank soda by the gallon, fast food by the bag full, take out and more junk food than you can imagine. Not only did I get fat, I became depressed, Agoraphobic, had horrible mood swings, panic attacks, Heartburn/Acid reflux, PMDD, heart pains & my hands were numb constantly.
I had a cold for 1 full year. I was unwell and exhausted. I couldn’t keep it together. I was in my PJ’s for days on end. My children would ask me if I was ever going to get dressed. I was so out of control
I prayed for God to deliver me from fast food. The cravings were excruciating.
I ate and ate and worked and gained over 40 pounds! I RARELY left the house.

The wrong food and too much of it.

Enough!
One day we ventured to the mall and I had the shock of a life time. I barely had enough energy to shop! I was trying to get the energy to get over to the Mrs. Fields Cookie store. I had to sit down and rest! It was at that exact moment I knew I was in trouble. I knew that someone with my past health and fitness experience should be able to fix this! I’d been telling myself I’ll ‘start’ tomorrow but tomorrow never came. Well, that day was the day I said “ENOUGH”. I was tired of looking bad and feeling worse. I decided to get off SUGAR and discovered that all the “diet” foods I was buying were feeding my sugar addiction! Hidden sugars had me jonesing for my next fix! I started searching the web for ideas on clean eating and began my journey back into health and fitness.

Changes!
The journey to change my lifestyle was a slow paced one. There was no Pinterest. No motivational boards. We just grabbed every clean recipe book we could. It took us over a year to completely clean our diet. Over that time, I began working out at home again. We got a puppy and started walking her. I could barely get around the block. I did pilates in my bedroom so no one could hear me cry. I couldn’t do one move!
Slowly, I began to lean out and get more stamina. I knew it was time to get myself BACK in my fitness career because that is where I thrive. I clearly made the right decision. I am blessed.Fuel
Through this process I also have changed how I feel about food. I try very hard to eat to fuel my body so I’m efficient in my day. Since cleaning up my diet, I rarely get sick anymore. Sugar suppresses the immune system so without that I’m much healthier! Most of my other concerns cleared promptly after starting a clean eating program. We try very hard to stay on track. I falter sometimes. I’m very hard on myself because I KNOW better.

What I have learned.
I am not a ‘skinny’ person. I work for every accomplishment. I was not naturally athletic. I’m built with curves and a tendency to have belly fat. I accept these things about me. Taking my journey to the stage continues to help me to approach my fitness/health as a journey. I want to be better each day. I want to bring the best package I can. I want to look better year after year. I want to be a healthy mom for my boys. I am so happy that Rob and I are active together.
We take our fitness/health so seriously. We are a team.

Forty pounds ago… that girl seems like someone else. I detoured off my path. But I have a deep understanding of what my clients go through. I know how good I feel now. I want others to know that too! I always want others to know that they can do it!

Set backs are a part of life. No matter what your goal you are going to have set backs.

Blahblahblah

Knowing this information doesn’t make it one bit palatable. I’m an over achiever and I suffer the highest level of frustration when I have a diet related set back. It’s the worst! Super-human, over achievers don’t give in to the urge to cheat! What??? No matter how hard I push, or how much I want to reach my goals, sometimes I’m my own worst enemy. And while my lifestyle is very clean and an occasional binge may look to others like a non issue, in my head it’s the ONLY ISSUE and it’s bad.

Type A is for ARRRRRGGGGGH

This is my shirt.

I know you too have had moments where you just said “whatever” and ate and drank outside your meal plan. Maybe you run all the scenarios in your head of how you’ll”work it off tomorrow”, or how you “owe it to yourself for being good on your plan”. Been there! Frankly, slip ups, and over indulging happen to most fitness people so it’s really not that big of a deal. Just as having one healthy meal won’t make you “a healthy person” eating an unhealthy meal won’t undo your hard work. Now the real world is much different than what’s pounding around in aType A brain.

When I come off a over lax cheat, the next whole week is a mess. My body can hardly function any more on bad food. I’m usually sick at my stomach, bloated and feel unmotivated. My next workouts are miserable and I’m a raving crab apple from the sugar-YOU KNOW it’s always sugar. The next day feels like day one. It’s miserable. My brain says.. “you get what you deserve”. “You should know better”. “You ruined your progress.”

Sound at all familiar?

I never say “I might as well give up” because I do know better, but I sure do teeter on “why do you even bother”.

Taking back the brain:

Let me just say that my brain is no where anyone would want to live. I notice a lot more negative self talk after any sugar, white flour, white potato or simple carbs, sanctioned or not. So I recognize this as chemical.

I also do know that repetitive negative self talk is a behavior and it creates little grooves in the grey matter of the brain. You can cease to feel negatively about yourself, but that little record of negativity will still play in your head. You can stop that by stopping that behavior and changing it to something else. Switch the negative to the positive and those little grooves will change too!

My post food disaster protocol Waking out of a bad food coma with a sugar hangover and pink icing my hair is no fun. Getting myself back together is like walking though fire in a gasoline G-string. For the next 4-5 days I feel like the Stay-puff marshmallow man. I usually dress all in black to mourn my loss of self control. That’s a joke, but black is slimming so….

My Secrets to surviving a cheat related setback. Consider this..

Leave it behind!! It’s over!!

Depression is in the past: If you are down, you are thinking about the past. What has happened, happened and it’s over. Slip ups don’t define us. Put that cheat in the past. Don’t think about it, don’t dwell on it. Don’t talk about it. Don’t panic and tell the world you ate cheese. Don’t commiserate with others. It’s over. Let it go.

Fear is in the future If you are worried that you will never make your goal you are thinking in the future. Fear=future.

Be in the present The best advice I have ever received is to put the past away, only think about what I can do today.
I will set a goal for today and give myself a success. I know I’m not running on all cylinders so I will be kind to myself and not make that goal 4 hours of cardio. My general practice is to fight the urge to over compensate at the gym and stick to my original plan. I also set my water goal and try to flush.. These are very positive steps that give me control of my food choices. Now is NOT the time to cut back on all your meals and skip carbs. I eat on my meal plan as written. I KNOW I can do that even if I have to just do it for today.

HACK! JUST GO BACK TO NORMAL MACROS!!
Resist the urge to drop calories down to poverty macros to compensate. We tell our clients to just go back to your normal routine and it will sort itself out. It does.

The best protocol for me is to simply look at my plan as a daily goal. I know what my big picture is. Living in the present keeps me focused.

I will string together successes each day and focus on change. My results will come in spite of my self!

Oh man, how many times do I get in the gym and see a women holding a heavy kettle bell rocking this side bend move.
“Why do you like that weighted side bend exercise?”
“So I can lose weight from my belly.”

I train women primarily, and have for the last 3 decades. I know how
my clients want to look and I have never incorporated this move and I never will.
My clients are women who want to look great in their clothes, smaller waist and flat tummies. They are not bulking or training for body building shows. So if you are ‘that woman’…

Let me break it down for you quickly.
1.You cannot lose belly fat by doing a specific exercise.
2. This lateral weighted move can increase the girth of your waist.
3. There are better moves to give you the definition you want.

Get your food right
1. Priority: You can have great ab muscles but you may never get to see them if your body fat is too high. Abs are made in the kitchen. Your meal plan IS the most important part of your ab success.

Look like a girl
2. Women have beautiful curves. We have a natural sweep in from the back to the waist and this move has the potential to thicken that up. On that note, stay away from the ab machines in the gym too. The weighted rotation machine and the weighted crunch machine are great if you desire a thicker trunk. However, most women do not want abs that look like fun-sized candy bars. Sporty girls, might like the idea of a thick boyish body, and that’s ok. But I don’t, so I’m going to keep my ab training techniques reflecting the look I want. I want sexy, girl curves.
Tell me how3. There are better ways to train your abs and get great results. I am a huge believer in pilates and find that it creates the most incredible abs. If you want to seek out pilates, there are great videos on youtube to get you going. Women do not need to do, what I call “meathead” abs. Hanging with chains, loaded machines etc are totally unnecessary. But think about this, Med ball slams engage the core. Any work done on a Bosu is core-centric. Planking is phenomenal. You can spend a portion your workouts doing core-centric movement and add pilates a few times a week to create beautiful lines without the bulking potential.The only ab specific training I did for my show was pilates. My full body work was core centric as well. No side bends, no weighted movements.

In pilates we use rotation and I stand by that. Instead of side to side movement as is demonstrated in the above picture, we train the obliques by trunk rotation. Movements like wood chops-low to high with a stability ball or the pilates criss cross movement are demonstrations of trunk rotation.

Check out my pilates 5 video below for amazing results!

Work smart on your core and get your food right. Soon you will see the beautiful, sleek abs you want!!

Ok.. so you’ve watched Dr. Mark Hyman talk about the dangers of dairy but you still want to know more. In part two of this series, we’ll discuss a few key points and how to make living without dairy part of your lifestyle.
The ongoing Dairy Disaster:
According to Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, acclaimed authors of best selling Fit for Life ll ,
DAIRY PRODUCTS ARE DISEASE PRODUCING. They are harmful, and cause suffering.
Dieticians, nutritionists and physicians alike will tell you to drink milk even though diary products have been linked to a host of problems including.**

Consumers do not spend our free time flipping through medical journal so it makes sense that the medical community would want to go to bat for us. I was at my annual check up and a young resident came in to ask me questions about my health. I told him I was trying to give up dairy and he asked me how I could get my calcium if I didn’t drink milk. You can Google ‘non-dairy’ forms of calcium and get a list of plant- based foods that contain calcium. If I know that.. why didn’t he? Medical school….????

Wait! I can’t put that on my cereal!
There are some great ‘milk alternatives’ I use Hemp milk, unsweetened soy but my favorite is unsweetened almond milk. You can cook with these also. Rice dream is another option. You can get these at most grocery stores.

————————–

Minerals

Milk is NOT a reliable source for minerals. You get much higher levels of manganese, chromium, selenium, and magnesium from fruits and veggies. They are also higher in boron which helps lessen the loss of calcium through urine.*

The number one reason clients tell me they want to hire me is because they want to lose weight.
A couple of things come to mind when I hear clients say this.
Chances are this person has had a history of yo-yo dieting and they don’t want to start over again and again. Also, typically, these people are slaves to the scale. It’s sad that so many people use the scale to judge their self-image. Weight loss= good day. Being up a pound or two could mean a bad day.

It really that cut and dried? Nope.. not at all. Our weight can fluctuate several times a day depending on water/food intake, depletion, hormones, or illness. This is no way to live. When the scale goes up or down, it’s a mental roller coaster that crushes self-esteem and sets the pace for a never-ending fight.

Did you know that 6 ounces of water can show a pound on the scale? Have you ever seen a boxer trying to make weight? If they are over their weight class, they will wrap themselves in plastic and sweat in a hot room to get that number down on the scale. That sounds super healthy, right? But hey.. they got the scale to say the right thing. 😦

I dislike the scale and ask my clients stay off of it. It doesn’t matter. Let me repeat.. it doesn’t matter.
I ask them, ‘do your clothes fit better?’. ‘ Do you like the way you look?’ The best judge of your loss is.. how you look.
Remember when I told you in a previous post that I was only about 8 pounds heavier at my mushiest than I was the day I did my show? I had soooo much more muscle the day of my show. I was two sizes smaller.

Muscle is tighter, cuter, sexier than body fat.

Muscle does NOT weigh more than fat.A pound is a pound is a pound and the truth of the matter is muscle is dense and much more efficient than body fat. The more muscle tissue you have the more calories you burn just going about your daily routine. SCIENCE!
Also, lean muscle tissue takes up less space and makes you look sexy and tight. Building lean muscle is critical to the overall goal of being lean and staying lean.
. Hey.. that body fat looks like SpongeBob! Look how much smaller 5 pounds of muscle is!

How we get it wrong

Too much cardio will cause you to lose muscle.
Cardio done in duration makes you lose muscle. All the cardio bunnies who come to me, tell me they love running but they can’t get rid of the jiggle. Picture this: You start with 30 minutes on the elliptical and you get some nice results. Soon, you have to amp your cardio time up to get more results. Pretty soon, your body has adapted to the longer duration and now you have to get up an hour earlier to get your cardio in. All the while, you are chasing the dream of losing weight while burning off the muscle that will keep your metabolism revved up! That’s messed up!

Diet with no exercise
Dieting alone without strength training, can cause you to lose muscle. The yo-yo dieter is someone who restricts their calories to lose weight.

“Oh girl, I totally lost weight and I didn’t even have to workout on that Dr. Oz diet!”

But it’s a sad fact that when you diet without strength training to build muscle, you lose valuable muscle tissue. Remember, muscle tissue burns more calories than body fat. The yo-yo dieter has now lost muscle and when she over eats, her metabolism is slower. She’s likely to regain her weight plus some! That’s NOT GOOD.

Solutions:

Strength Training : Lift!!! You will not bulk up. You will not look like a man. You will be lean, sexy and your clothes will slip on like you’ve been dipped in butter. Your shape will be gorgeous and your friends will be jealous.

High intensity Interval Training: HIIT is bursts of high intensity movement with short periods of active recovery. Our clients do 20 minutes of HIIT to help peel away body fat. Your body doesn’t get ‘used to HIIT’ and it will respond favorably. Word of caution. More is not better. 55 minutes of HIIT. Nope. Hours of HIIT every day.. skip that too. You don’t need it. Start with a commitment to lifting 4 times a week and 2 HIIT workouts of 15 minutes each. Leave the overkill mentality behind!!

Get on a meal plan. Hot bodies are made in the kitchen. You can’t eat crap and get bikini ready.

If you don’t know how to start, or need help with your workouts or meal plans, please let me help you!
You can totally do this!!